Massive Ocean Wind Turbines

And we thought that they couldn’t get any bigger? The largest land based turbines with 300 ft blade spans now look like Tonka toys compared to the Aerogenerator X.  Instead of having blades mounted on a horizontal axis like tradition wind mills, the Aerogenerator uses a vertical axis. This also allows for the use of a much larger generator.

When positioned  in the open waters of the ocean, the 900ft blade span of the Aerogenerator X creates about 10 megawatts of electricity. The equates to about 3 times the energy output of land based units. This capacity could not econmically be matched by Aerogenerator’s land based brethern. The physical forces placed on current turbines limits their output, but engineers hope to have a working prototype operation by 2013.

Via DVICE